If property values in weaker markets, such as Cincinnati or Indianapolis, don't improve before the loans come due, many borrowers will be forced to default. Community banks tend to have the biggest commercial property holdings as a percentage of overall assets, so mass defaults could cause scores of those lenders to fail.

"The problem that no one's really addressed is how many banks are in trouble." said Daniel Neidich, chief executive of Dune Real Estate Partners, which manages funds that target distressed and other underperforming properties. "Obviously, where a third of your assets are overvalued, what's that say about the bank?"

Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.